Dumb Facts » Government

Gene Simmons, of the shock-rock group Kiss, earned a B.A. in education and speaks four languages.

The New York Board of Education barred the whipping of children in its schools on March 4, 1908.

During the Stalin era, education in Russia was stressed. As a result, a majority of Russian women and men are very intelligent and hold degrees. In fact, Russia’s literacy rate is about 98 percent.

If all retired US ships that now serve as memorials were used to form a new navy, it would rank as the third largest in the world.

During 2002, two hundred thousand dollars were approved to be spent in Georgia to build a “group shelter” at Jefferson Davis Historic Site.

Samuel Colt’s first gun manufacturing factory went bankrupt.

In the Amended Georgia FY 2002 Budget, 8.7 million dollars was alotted to the Georgia Technology Authority for “portal development”.

During the Manhatten Project, 18 people were injected with plutonium to test the effects of nuclear weapons on humans, which caused numerous health problems, and most were not even aware it had occurred.

The H-4, more commonly known as the “Spruce Goose”, was the largest airplane ever to be built, and first lifted off on November 2,1947. The unexpected flight lasted for approximately a minute and stunned onlookers who had never seen a plane so massive (the Spruce Goose’s wingspan was 320 feet). Designed, constructed, and flown by Howard Hughes at the first trial run, the plane would never fly again. Final cost: 22 million dollars paid by the federal government and 18 million dollars paid by Hughes personally (numbers not adjusted for inflation).

In 2002, three and a half million dollars were approved to be spent in Georgia for the construction of a “fishing area” in Ocmulgee Wildlife Management Area.

The Amended Georgia FY 2002 Budget gives 4.7 million dollars to the department of human resources for postage alone!

In the Amended Georgia FY 2002 Budget, $65,000 was spent to buy a new cooler for the Georgia School for the Deaf.

Chartered on January 27, 1785, the University of Georgia is the oldest state-chartered University in the United States.